Preference Markets in New Product Development

Abstract Preference markets address the need for scalable, fast and engaging market research in new product development. The Web 2.0 paradigm, in which users contribute numerous ideas that may lead to new products, requires new methods of screening those ideas for their marketability and preference markets offer just such a mechanism. For faster new product development decisions, a flexible prioritization methodology for product features and concepts is tested. It scales up in the number of testable alternatives, limited only by the number of participants. New product preferences for concepts, attributes and attribute levels are measured by trading stocks whose prices are based upon share of choice of new products and features. Benefits of preference markets include speed, scalability, flexibility, and respondent enthusiasm for the method.